Phillip Venable, assistant professor emeritus of clinical ophthalmology

Venable, who joined the University in 1958, was the first African-American member of the faculty. He established the Katie and Howard Phillip Venable Student Research Fund in Ophthalmology, providing stipends for a summer research program for minority students. He and his wife supplied students with many of the necessities to complete the program, including microscopes and housing. Venable retired from the medical school in 1987.

Throughout his career, he worked to recruit African Americans to become eye doctors. He also had a private practice in Ballwin for many years and briefly headed the now-closed Homer G. Phillips Hospital.

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Herbert E. Metz, associate professor emeritus of drama and English

Herbert E. Metz, professor emeritus of drama and of English in Arts and Sciences, died of complications stemming from heart failure Tuesday, Aug. 25, 1998, at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. He was 77.

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Jane Allen Ritter, an applied music instructor at the University from 1990 to 1994, died of pneumonia Friday, Aug. 21, 1998, at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. She was 70 and lived in University City.

A concert pianist, Allen was internationally acclaimed and served as a soloist with the St. Louis and Baltimore symphonies. A tireless teacher who gave lessons seven days a week, she had hundreds of pupils, who collectively won virtually every prize in their field.

Harold E. Thayer, who served on the University's Board of Trustees from 1967 to 1979, died of cancer Sunday, Aug. 23, 1998, at Missouri Baptist Medical Center in Town and Country. He was 86.

Thayer headed Mallinckrodt Inc., from 1960 to 1982, ushering the health care and chemical firm through two decades of unprecedented growth. He also was known as a unflagging worker on behalf of several charitable and community organizations, from the Boy Scouts of America to Civic Progress.

James A. Wood, M.D., who served as a clinical instructor of medicine from 1957 to 1994, died after a long illness Sunday, Aug. 9, 1998, at Bethesda West Nursing Home in Ellisville. He was 72.

A past president of the Washington University Medical Center Alumni Association, Wood received a medical degree from the medical school in 1949. He also was in private practice for 37 years in Clayton and Town and Country.